It will take some time to be able to sell electricity from your own PV production to your neighbors. But it’s definitely heading in that direction. The Lower Austrian startup eFriends, in cooperation with the German startup clever-PV from Bavaria (specializing in the energy management of solar systems), now makes it possible to share excess electricity with friends or family members in a cross-border cooperation.
Here’s how it works: Using a smartphone app, users join friends, acquaintances or family members to form a personal energy community. For example, parents can make the surplus electricity from their solar system available to their children studying in another city at no cost. This can significantly reduce users’ electricity costs. eFriends can currently offer the service in Austria and is considering expanding to Germany and other European countries.
Startups OurPower and eFriends among the ten greenest electricity providers in Austria
clever-PV controls power consumption devices
In the energy sharing cooperation, eFriends from Austria takes care of the distribution and billing of electricity between users, the exchange of data with network operators and the delivery of residual electricity. The Germany-based startup clever-PV takes over the control of the electricity consumption devices within the communities.
The transfer of surplus electricity is already possible in Austria in an energy community. eFriends now wants to take this one step further. “Electricity is not just provided anonymously in a community. As a result, we change our attitude towards electricity consumption more quickly and adapt it more readily to solar generation. “In this way, we reduce the need for conventional electricity generation and thus the CO2 footprint,” says Matthias Katt, founder and CEO of eFriends. The technology for this is already ready for series production, says Danny Klose, co-founder and CEO of clever-PV.
According to a study by the WWF, eFriends is one of the greenest electricity providers in Austria. RWA (Raiffeisen Ware Austria) has held a stake of almost 25 percent in the startup, which was founded in 2015, for several years.
“Kilos for Watts”: Electricity sharing platform eFriends exchanges energy for food vouchers